Left run put to challenge first time in Tripura

The 2018 Assembly Elections in Tripura has brought about a series of firsts — this is the first time that the Left's unrivalled power in the state has a contender: the BJP. It is the first time that the Congress has practically no stake in the elections. This is also the first time that CM Manik Sarkar has tried to warm up to the legacy of the Manikya kingdom in the run up to the elections.

The entry of the BJP, with a thrust of money and muscles — as the critics of the saffron power say — has changed the state's political landscape, attracting candidates and voters of the Congress, like it has in other states in the region.

Sarkar, known as the country's most honest CM, is facing allegations of shielding cabinet ministers involved in the Rose Valley scam. Despite the older generation crediting Sarkar with bringing to control the problems of militancy, the younger generation, brought up in a time that has not seen guns and bomb blasts, is attracted by the BJP's call for development in a state that has seen few, owing to the Left's steadfast ideas of purity and control.

The Congress, on the other hand, had a sizeable voter base and 10 sitting MLAs, most of whom left for the BJP. 

The party's working president, Pradyot Manikya Debbarma, king of the erstwhile Manikya kingdom of the indigenous Tiprasa community, was even courted by the BJP to lead their campaign but Pradyot eventually stayed back after Congress President Rahul Gandhi stepped in.

The Tiprasa vote bank, that accounts for 20 seats, is now wooed by the BJP after it forged a last moment tie with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) — a party that has always fought for a separate Twipraland. 
After its new alliance, the IPFT has pushed back its demand behind a high-level modality committee that will be formed under the home ministry to study the demands of the indigenous people.

The BJP, whose push has been remarkable in the last four years, sent in Sunil Deodhar, a RSS man, who is now in the BJP, and had managed PM Modi's campaign in Varanasi in 2014. In Tripura, he built the party from scratch, and by his own admission, the party saw hope when it won three of the 591 of the state's gram panchayats. It worked on the Congress voter base block by block to gain their voters and candidates.

The fight in Tripura this year is a straight one between the Left and the BJP. Will the Left bastion be breached or will the BJP be forced to stay away? Only March 3 will tell.